Joshua Clottey

It's not the fight most wanted to see, and many casual sports fans probably don't know much about this guy who's stepped into Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s void to fight Manny Pacquiao. Understandable. So much about why that mega-bout crashed over a drug-testing dispute, with $25-million guarantees to each fighter, is head-scratching. Time, then, to bring some simple reasoning to the sport now as fight week arrives for Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey on Saturday night at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

LAS VEGAS - Theories abound as to why Manny Pacquiao has gone seven fights since 2009 without knocking out an opponent. The effects of age on the 35-year-old, the talent and size of the opponents, conditioning flaws and distractions in his personal life and in his public life as a congressman in the Philippines are among the most cited reasons. Pacquiao's opponent Saturday at the MGM Grand, World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, has called out Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 knockouts)

Manny Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, announced Tuesday that HBO pay-per-view will televise the March 13 Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey welterweight fight at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. More than 1,500 fans plus the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders greeted Pacquiao and Clottey for their news conference Tuesday inside the stadium. Both fighters entered the stadium through the players' tunnel and said they felt like football players. "It was a fun announcement," Cowboys and stadium owner Jerry Jones said.

Manny Pacquiao has been the most dynamic boxer of the last decade, but the most recent image many fans have of the star is of his being knocked out and flat on his face in his most recent fight. Now, less than a month from his 35th birthday, can Pacquiao reverse the story Saturday night when he fights former world lightweight champion Brandon Rios in Macao, China, in an HBO pay-per-view welterweight bout? "I forgot the last fight already and I've moved on," Pacquiao said in a telephone interview from China.

The adulation for Manny Pacquiao is growing by the day. On his cellphone Wednesday, promoter Bob Arum was told 2,000 more seats were sold, meaning 38,000 tickets have been bought for Pacquiao's world welterweight title fight against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. This is the disparity boxing creates. Future glory and perhaps a fifth straight Pacquiao knockout, televised to the world and shown to the Dallas masses in person and on the 160-foot-wide high-definition screen above the ring, await.

Joshua Clottey has already addressed all questions about his desire out of the ring. Now, as he completes his preparations for Saturday night's WBO welterweight title fight against Manny Pacquiao, the mystery surrounding Clottey is whether the big underdog can produce the performance of his lifetime. Oddsmakers don't think so: Pacquiao is a 15-2 favorite. Clottey (35-3, with 21 knockouts) was raised with little education in the African country of Ghana. He made daily trips to the sea as a youngster to reel in fish that he would sell to help support a family he described as "transient."

— It's Manny Pacquiao's crowd, and Joshua Clottey knows it. As a chorus of "Manny!" chants rushed the Cowboys Stadium outdoor stage where the two fighters weighed in Friday (Clottey at the limit 147 pounds, and Pacquiao at 145 3/4 pounds) for Saturday night's WBO welterweight title fight, challenger Clottey briefly mouthed "Manny!" himself. It's public gatherings like this that Pacquiao will repeat starting later this month as he campaigns for a May 20 congressional election in his native Philippines.

A huge crowd of 50,994, in a huge stadium in this Dallas suburb, watched Manny Pacquiao battle 12 rounds against a turtle Saturday night. Pacquiao, currently the best of the best in the fight game, won a unanimous and lopsided decision over Joshua Clottey, a man from Ghana, by way of the Bronx, whose style was to cover his head with his hands high and plod around. While he was doing this, Pacquiao hit him from every angle at every speed. "He's a tough fighter, a good fighter," Pacquiao said afterward, probably being nice.

The best strategy for challenger Joshua Clottey in his fight against Manny Pacquiao may be to use his head. Not his brain, his head. There is a history here, and the Pacquiao camp is aware. Their fighter is so heavily favored that some odds on Pacquiao winning have been as high as 15-2. There has been more discussion about where the fight is taking place — massive Cowboys Stadium in front of 45,000 people — than how it will turn out. To most, it's a foregone conclusion.

Timothy Bradley has questions to answer about his ability to maintain his speed with seven more pounds on, along with how he will fare under the hot lights of a pay-per-view main event in Las Vegas. The unbeaten Cathedral City boxer readying for his June 9 world welterweight title bout against Manny Pacquiao shrugged off that scrutiny, instead expressing the advantages he'll have over the Filipino superstar who labored to a victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in November. "I can box, I can brawl, I'm well-conditioned -- no one is more conditioned than me," Bradley, 28, said.

Manny Pacquiao has been writing a weekly blog for HBO Sports in the weeks leading up to his fight Saturday against Juan Manuel Marquez. HBO has provided excerpts from his final blog, in which Pacquiao discusses why he didn't seek a rematch with Tim Bradley, and why what he learned in his fight with Bradley will help him knock out Marquez. “I was really looking forward to fighting Tim Bradley. He had earned the shot at my title having been undefeated and unifying the junior welterweight titles twice. He always came to fight in shape and he always fought aggressively. I thought the fans would enjoy our fight.

Timothy Bradley has questions to answer about his ability to maintain his speed with seven more pounds on, along with how he will fare under the hot lights of a pay-per-view main event in Las Vegas. The unbeaten Cathedral City boxer readying for his June 9 world welterweight title bout against Manny Pacquiao shrugged off that scrutiny, instead expressing the advantages he'll have over the Filipino superstar who labored to a victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in November. "I can box, I can brawl, I'm well-conditioned -- no one is more conditioned than me," Bradley, 28, said.

From Las Vegas — Boxing will give its fans another nice appetizer Saturday night. Promoter Bob Arum, a master of such things, has kept hamburger sliders as a mainstay on his fight menu. Manny Pacquiao, the world's current top fighter, both in the ring and in fans' perception, will take on Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand Garden. They will fight at 144 pounds, a catchweight and a concept that is becoming the norm in making big fights. The WBO welterweight title is at stake, but the only people who care about that are the WBO sanctioning people, who are here on expense accounts.

The contradictions in Manny Pacquiao's dual careers are unmistakable. He is embracing a humanitarian campaign in his significant day job, and is being asked to knock a man out in his lucrative work at night. Yet as much as Pacquiao at this week's news conference discussed his fight Saturday night, even more time was spent on how he would be wearing yellow boxing gloves as he takes on Shane Mosley, imploring anyone listening to don yellow clothing to show unity in the worldwide fight to end poverty.

Along about 10:15 Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines will walk down the aisle of a massive American football stadium toward a boxing ring. There will be 60,000 people there, many screaming for his blood. He will be facing a bigger, stronger man who has little to lose. As he walks, Pacquiao will be smiling. Most boxers enter with stern looks. They are told to focus. This is serious business. It is dangerous. It is their livelihood, often their only means of feeding their families.

Former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito pleaded his case before the California State Athletic Commission on Wednesday but was denied a new boxing license after commissioners said he failed to show enough responsibility for nearly taking plaster-covered inserts into the ring last year in his title loss to Shane Mosley at Staples Center. The commission voted 5 to 1 against Margarito's bid to be re-licensed. A state attorney also blasted Margarito for "lying" about his knowledge of the loaded hand wraps that were confiscated before his technical knockout loss to Mosley.

The Nov. 13 super-welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito will land at Cowboys Stadium outside Dallas, a source close to site negotiations told The Times on Monday. Former world welterweight champion Margarito is scheduled to appear Wednesday before the California State Athletic Commission in hopes of regaining his boxing license. He was stripped of his license after authorities confiscated plaster inserts from inside his hand wrap before his January 2009 title defense against Shane Mosley at Staples Center.

This wasn't the usual ring walk for Manny Pacquiao. With so much ground to cover inside this $1.2-billion, 100,000-person capacity palace known as Cowboys Stadium, Pacquiao came to Texas with a chance to take out his frustrations over the road not taken, the result of a bitter negotiation with fellow superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. that squandered a $25-million guarantee. The target was Ghana's Joshua Clottey, a true welterweight with a chance to stun the boxing world.A?A Clottey emerged from a locker room where African drums and instruments had been played.